Mentor Matching for Veterans with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

Introducing a mentor matching system providing personalized and effective experiences for veterans

Full Project Name:Mentor Matching for Veterans with Post-Traumatic Stress DisorderPrimary Community Organization:Marquette UniversityPrimary Academic Partner:Zeno Franco, PhD, Family MedicineAward Amount:$50,000

Award Date

January2024

Project Duration:18 months

Project Summary:

Peer mentoring programs are a promising strategy for supporting veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). One challenge for veteran mentoring programs is matching mentors with mentees to create successful outcomes.

This project will create an automatic mentor matching system using quantitative and qualitative factors. With algorithmic approaches, researchers will identify suitable mentor-mentee matches, creating a personalized and effective mentorship experience for veterans. This will positively impact Milwaukee’s veteran community and other regional communities, and eventually, findings will be applied to other counseling contexts.

Outcomes & Lessons Learned:

Developed an automated mentor-mentee matching system to support veterans with PTSD to improve upon the existing manual process and transition to a more structured, explainable, and veteran-centered approach
Utilized survey data from more than 300 veterans to glean insights to further improve this automated matching system and confirm that stronger, more consistent mentor-mentee engagement leads to measurable improvements in well-being
Engaged 16 veterans and peer mentors from the Army, Air Force, Marines, and National Guard via survey distribution and focus groups to identify recurring patterns such as the importance of shared service background, communication preferences, gender sensitivity, recovery status, and personal interests to help inform the initial demo prototype algorithmic matching